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Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers Halloween 2012

Posted on 24 September, 2012 by Cynthia

I always tend to show Wet N Wild a lot of love because they are an economical brand that always puts out interesting collections. I’m not really a polish snob who thinks that more expensive polishes will always equal better quality so I am usually open to picking up Wet N Wild polishes. Remember the brouhaha that the Saved By The Nail Collection caused? Yikes! I was lucky enough to get my hands on that collection and actually loved every color! This is the first year that I have even been aware of these delightful Halloween polishes so I was very happy when I finally found them. The Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers polishes for Halloween 2012 is made up of 3 glittery shades and one glow in the dark top coat. Here are some swatches of the 3 polishes in the collection.

Nail In The Coffin is a little too subtle for me. In regular light, this just looks like a black polish to me so I had to photograph this in direct sunlight to show the subtle glitter

Rest In Pieces is my favorite polish of the three. The black base is pretty sheer but it does build up nicely and the polish is not a pain to control. The glitter in this polish shows up way better than in Nail In The Coffin so I appreciate that.

Once Upon A Time is a huge glitter bomb that I found quite difficult to work with because it’s hard to control the glitter when the sheer black base is so thin. I found that it was difficult to get even glitter distribution so you definitely see it bunch up in certain areas. I hear that it is a possible dupe of Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers but I can’t confirm that since I don’t own it.

I am a little torn about this collection. While I think they are pretty and I adore the packaging, they definitely don’t wow me. Maybe it’s just my mood so I’ll let you make up your own mind. Let me know what you think of these polishes. I ended up purchasing 3 sets of these and thought that maybe I could put one up as my last giveaway of the month. What do you think?

Come See Who Won My Birthday Giveaway #2

Posted on 23 September, 2012 by Cynthia

Thank you to everyone who participated in my second Birthday Giveaway. The winners are:

Sarah has won the Red Alert Set and Lisa has won the Passion For Fashion Set. I have contacted both winners and will wait to hear back from them.

Thanks again to everyone who participated, and I hope to hold more giveaways for all of you in the future.

Cynthia

Orly Satin Hues – Satin Finesse

Posted on 20 September, 201220 September, 2012 by Cynthia

I went dusty hunting today. If you’re saying, “What else is new?” well, you’re probably right. I was looking for 2 particular polishes but didn’t find them. I know that some of those places might have had them but it was way too hot to be rummaging through their dust-filled displays. One of the places I went to barely had any room to walk around because they were doing a lot of stocking, and they didn’t seem to care that paying customers were trying to look at their products. This is fairly normal of Little Saigon. There was also another woman (a customer) who came right up and stood in front of me while I was looking at a polish rack. Seriously? I wanted to punch her in the back of the head. So anyway, I went to about 4 dusties and ran across some interesting stuff. Today I’m going to show you a long discontinued polish from Orly. The Orly Satin Hues Collection is an older collection of satin/matte finish polishes with a little extra kick. They aren’t totally matte–hence the satin name. They have a really pretty sheen to them and look nice without top coat. Here is a look at Orly Satin Finesse:

I don’t have any reliable information about when this line came out or when it was discontinued, but it does seem pretty old. One of the first things I noticed is how ginormous the bottle is at .75 oz. I love purple nail polish so I knew I was going to like this one no matter what. Since it is a satin finish polish, you have to work quickly because it turns goopy pretty quickly. You can see some brush strokes which usually annoys me like hell, but they aren’t too bad.

And if you know me, you know that I always want to make everything shiny.

I think I just heard angels sing. THIS. IS. AMAZING.I love how the color became a little deeper and darker but brighter at the same time. Does that even make sense? I love, love, love this. And just for shits and giggles, I added some gold stars:

I had been wanting to use these loose gold stars for a while now so I’m glad I finally did.

So what do you think of this polish? There were a few other colors (including a yellow!!!) that I didn’t get because I wanted to see what the formula was like. I am happy to report that it was not problematic even though it was a little on the thin and watery side. Despite that, it builds up nicely. Will I be going back to get the other colors? You betcha!

So what has been going on with you? Any cool polish finds to report? Thanks for stopping by and catch you later, gator.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 4: Green

Posted on 19 September, 201219 September, 2012 by Cynthia

I really need to start planning out these challenge looks better because I always find myself scrambling the day of. Even when I think I have an idea I want to execute, it just blows up in my face. Every. Single. Time. Last night I had mentioned to Nicole from Polish Me, Please that I wanted to use my new bottle of Illamasqua Nurture which is one of the new Rubber Finish polishes. However, once I put it on, it was way too bright for my liking. I guess I just wanted a darker color to work with so instead I rummaged through my stash and decided to go with a color I hadn’t used yet: essence Walk On The Wild Side.

Walk On The Wild Side is simply gorgeous: it’s a dark olive/forest green with green-gold flakies throughout. I applied two coats and it was absolutely perfect. I have to admit that I thought the polish was pretty when I was indoors, but as soon as I went outside to photograph it in direct sunlight, I was in love. In fact, it’s so pretty that I didn’t really want to do anything else to it. I always find a way to ruin a pretty polish. I think I have come to the conclusion that simplicity is my thing. While I admire beautiful nail art, I just don’t think I can do it. So one of the main reasons why I was so excited in participating in this challenge is because it forces me to push my comfort zone.

Yesterday when I was at my nail places, I bought a few containers of hex glitters so I decided to use them today.

I can see now that the line if kind of crooked but whatever! At least I tried! I didn’t mean for my nails to look Christmas-y but I guess that’s’ kind of normal when you use green and gold.

Don’t forget to check out everyone’s submissions below! The lovely ladies also participating in this challenge are:

Jessica from Once Upon A Polish

Nicole from Polish Me, Please!

Ave from Polish Pixelle

Alaina from The Little Canvas

Thanks for stopping by and until next time when the challenge will revolve around the color blue.

China Glaze Wicked Collection Halloween 2012

Posted on 18 September, 201218 September, 2012 by Cynthia

Today I decided to beat the heat and head over to Little Saigon before the heat really started. My dusties are really…dusty. No, you don’t understand: you actually walk out of some of those places covered in dust and soot. My allergies actually get out of control when I go there, but it’s worth it. It’s sooooooo worth it. Jessica from Once Upon A Polish had mentioned that her Sally’s already had the China Glaze Wicked Collection out so I figured I might as well check my usual places since it’s the only place I can get my polishes for cheap. See, when you buy as much polish as I do, you have to become a polish sleuth and find the best (read cheapest) places so you can really go nuts on the quantity.

The China Glaze Wicked Collection is a 6 piece collection and I decided to get 4 of the polishes. I passed on the two glitters just because I didn’t think they were that interesting. Let me show you some swatches of the 4 polishes I picked up.

Roguish Red is kind of radioactive when my camera is involved. It is a very bright tomato orange color but it looked way brighter in the sun so I had a hard time taking an accurate picture. In the bottle, this looks exactly like China Glaze Pure Torture that was released in 2005 as part of the Voodoo, That U Do collection. It’s probably the same color! Poo! The application on this was perfect and only needed two coats. My only complaint is that the brush is junk on my bottle. I rarely have brush issues with China Glaze but this brush was frayed and wonky. 🙁

Immortal is really my favorite polish from this collection. I am always on the lookout for a good grey, and this one definitely fits the bill. The shimmer in it is just so pretty!! This polish was a little thin so I had to use three thin coats. Although I don’t think this is the most exciting polish of the bunch, it is probably the polish I would get the most use out of on a regular basis.

Bizarre Blurple is really throwing me for a loop. Normally I would say that it’s my favorite (purple and blue–hello!) but it’s very “been there, done that” on the heels of Orly Mysterious Curse (aka Orly Royal Velvet) and Deborah Lippmann Dancing In The Sheets. There might be slight differences, but not enough for me to tell you it’s worth getting if you have the others already. I know that won’t stop serious polish hoarders…like yours truly. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Cast A Spell is the only polish in this collection that actually seems Halloween inspired! Wow! One out of six. I don’t think I have anything similar to this in my collection so I’m definitely glad I picked it up. It’s such a gorgeous blackened olive with goldish/green flecks. Did I mention it’s amazing? This could be a one-coater if you use enough polish, but I ended up applying two thin coats.

What are your impressions of this collection? Are you planning on getting some of these polishes or will you be passing? Personally, I think that the Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers RIP polishes seem much more interesting. I will be swatching those for you tomorrow so you’ll have to let me know what you think.

Here is what the damage has been in the last couple of days…mostly all today.

Why does polish make me so happy? I’m just fortunate that I have stealth ninja skills when it comes to getting polish on the cheap…otherwise I would be in BIG trouble. Thanks again for stopping by and until next time!

P.S. Have you entered my Jessica Cosmetics Giveaway? No?! Why not?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cosmetic Arts Nail Polish

Posted on 17 September, 2012 by Cynthia

Ok, so I went to Ross and TJ Maxx in search of all the nail polish finds that people have been posting in the last week and I found bupkis. I did see a lot of Essie polishes at TJ Maxx but they were pretty icky so I passed. When I went to Ross, I found a few Cosmetic Arts polishes and decided to finally give them a try after a super enabler (Stephanie from PWRC!!) told me that the formula was pretty good. These polishes are made by the same people who make Color Club so at least I knew they wouldn’t be super crappy. My beef with these polishes, like the budget Color Club sets that can be found at Ross, is that they are not labeled. Am I supposed to go through some major polish hunt to figure out what each polish is called? I read somewhere that Color Club had some info about these polishes listed on their website but I didn’t find anything. So, if you know the name of this phantom polish, please tell me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some swatches for your viewing pleasure:

Don’t tell me that this polish isn’t pretty. It’s a difficult polish to photograph because the blue-ish microglitter is much more visible under sunlight. I am very impressed by the formula but I feel like it dries kind of dull. I used Seche Vite as my top coat, and it pretty much disappeared so maybe next time I will try Gelous.

In other nail polish news, I got my Silly Lily nail polish order in the mail and also found the RIP Fantasy Makers (WNW) Halloween Polishes. Wooo hooo! I will probably swatch them tomorrow. Now I am just missing my Coterie Butter London polishes to get here….tick tock. And before I forget: Dollish Polish is releasing their Halloween collection on 9/20. Guess who’s going to be stalking their site all morning/day. MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and catching up with me. 🙂

Barielle Falling Star

Posted on 17 September, 201217 September, 2012 by Cynthia

You know the feeling when you finally find a polish you’ve been wanting but initially passed on because you were being dumb? Well, I finally found this beauty. I picked up Barielle Falling Star this weekend at TJ Maxx, and I was beyond happy. I actually don’t remember the exact price, but I think it was $2.99 which is a steal in my book.. I had seen this polish in a blue themed set of Barielle polishes that I had neglected to pick up and then they disappeared. I should know better than that because when cool polishes show up, they will disappear just as quickly so don’t ever hesitate because you will lose out.

When I got home, I immediately searched online for swatches and I was super sad about the reviews for this polish. I read a lot of reviews stating that this polish was an application nightmare: that is was goopy and gross and almost impossible to apply. I armed myself with my bottle of thinner and was determined to make this polish work. Normally I am heavily against the idea of thinning a brand new polish, but if the reviews were accurate, this baby would need a whole bunch of thinner.

Behold, Falling Star:

I normally don’t post this many pictures for just one polish, but I actually really love this shade of blue. It was an antique and dusty feeling to it and I adore the copper/pink glitter. Even more amazing, the glitter doesn’t get lost in the base color despite the color being so pigmented. As far as the formula is concerned, yes it is thick and can get unruly and goopy in an instant. I added quite a few drops of thinner and found that the formula improved tremendously.

So what do you think of Falling Star? Is it a color you would wear? I honestly can’t think of any other similar color in my collection so I’d love to hear if you have any dupe suggestions.

If you haven’t entered yet, make sure that you check out my post here with the information for my latest giveaway which features two mini sets of Jessica Cosmetics polishes.

Thanks for stopping by and catch you later!

September Birthday Giveaway #2

Posted on 16 September, 201216 September, 2012 by Cynthia

Are you ready for another giveaway? As promised, the birthday extravaganza continues with another nail polish giveaway. I will be choosing two winners for this next giveaway as I have two sets of Jessica Cosmetics minis:

The colors in this kit are: Happy Days, Loving The Lilacs and Velvet Rope.

The colors in this kit are: Starlight Starbright, Cabernet Creme and Chilled Chambord.

This second picture made me laugh because you can see me taking the pic, and I hadn’t even combed my hair. What a bird’s nest!

I am so happy I got my hands on these sets because I think they are adorable and Jessica is really one of my favorite nail polish brands. I think they are sorely underrated because a lot of people can’t seem to get this brand locally and don’t always want to purchase them online. If you want to know how awesome the quality of these polishes is, check out some of my previous reviews here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My previous giveaways have been open to US, Canada, France and UK residents but I am going to open this up worldwide. My only concern is that I’ve heard that some countries are really strict when it comes to nail polish being mailed so please know the customs regulations of your particular country before you enter. I will not be responsible if you win and your prize is confiscated by customs…and that would make me super sad!

After this giveaway, I have one last one planned, and I hope that you will really enjoy it because I’m loving the idea of planning it. Weeeeeeeeee! 🙂 Don’t forget to share this with your nail polish loving friends.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 3 : Yellow

Posted on 16 September, 2012 by Cynthia

I apologize in advance for what I am about to show you. I actually think my nails look hideous which sucks because I was really looking forward to using this yellow polish. I’d like to say that I do like the yellow polish on its own, but the stamp just looks…barf-worthy. My third submission for the 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art is a big fat fail. Here we go….

This is Nails Inc. Carnaby Street:

It’s no secret that I love Nails Inc. because they have the best creme formula on the planet as far as I’m concerned. Unfortunately, Carnaby Street fell prey to the usual trapping of yellow polish: it was patchy and kind of annoying to work with. It took 3 coats for me to be able to cover up all the bald spots which is unheard of in my Nails Inc. experience. I should have left well enough alone, but noooooooooooooooo. I had to stamp over this…

I used a design from Cheeky plate CH 48. While the design isn’t ugly, per se, the color combo just looks UGLY. Please join me in hating this final look.

I’m late to posting this because I went nuts and removed this immediately: that’s how much I hated it. I guess I can’t always have a nail win.

Don’t forget to check out the looks created by the other ladies participating in the challenge. I’m sure their submissions will be much more interesting–can’t be as ugly as mine…that’s for sure!

Thanks for stopping by and until next time!

China Glaze Deviantly Daring

Posted on 15 September, 2012 by Cynthia

I realize I’m late to the New Bohemian party but I still ended up getting a couple of polishes from the China Glaze New Bohemian Collection. China Glaze Deviantly Daring is probably the only color that really interested me from this collection after I saw what a duochrome fail the whole collection turned out to be. I think that the colors are pretty, but I was so incredibly let down once swatches started popping up online that I just decided to pass on the whole collection when it first came out.I came across some of the polishes at one of my dusties for dirt cheap so I picked up this color and No Plain Jane.

China Glaze Deviantly Daring is a described as an “adventurously bold peacock teal” and I think that description suits it just fine. I am always a huge fun of teal polishes so I am happy that I decided to pick this one up. I thought the formula was pretty darn perfect. It was easy to control and it was opaque in two coats.

Something weird happened when I applied my top coat of Seche Vite: I found that the duochrome showed up a lot better. I could really see the darker blue flash on the tips and edges of my nails! It’s still not as majestic as I had hoped when I saw bottle shots, but it’s pretty. Brush strokes are one of my most hated polish issues and unfortunately, there were some visible brush strokes: not enough to make me hate the polish but enough to let me they are there–teasing me.

Since I’ve been on a star kick lately, I decided to use another star stamp over Deviantly Daring.

This star pattern is from Cheeky plate CH52.

What do you think? I think that if I find more of these New Bohemian polishes for cheap, I will purchase them. Did you get any of these polishes? What did you think of them?

Thanks for stopping by and catching up. Stay cool and until next time!